Insider Selling: Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB) CEO Sells 17,500 Shares of Stock

Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB) CEO Kang Jyh Lee sold 17,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.10, for a total value of $421,750.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 510,850 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,311,485. This represents a 3.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website.

Kang Jyh Lee also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, January 6th, Kang Jyh Lee sold 10,000 shares of Photronics stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.02, for a total transaction of $250,200.00.
• On Tuesday, December 24th, Kang Jyh Lee sold 17,500 shares of Photronics stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.00, for a total transaction of $420,000.00.
• On Thursday, December 19th, Kang Jyh Lee sold 20,000 shares of Photronics stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.27, for a total transaction of $505,400.00.

Photronics Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of Photronics stock opened at $24.22 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $1.53 billion, a PE ratio of 11.59 and a beta of 1.39. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $24.68 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $24.35. Photronics, Inc. has a 12-month low of $20.25 and a 12-month high of $34.16.

Photronics (NASDAQ:PLAB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 11th. The semiconductor company reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by $0.07. Photronics had a return on equity of 9.10% and a net margin of 15.07%. The company had revenue of $222.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $218.00 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.60 EPS. Photronics’s revenue was down 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Photronics, Inc. will post 2.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Photronics

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PLAB. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in Photronics by 17.6% during the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,448 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $81,000 after purchasing an additional 516 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Photronics by 4.8% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 70,175 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,694,000 after purchasing an additional 3,217 shares in the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Photronics by 12.9% during the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 73,350 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $1,826,000 after buying an additional 8,372 shares during the period. Meros Investment Management LP raised its stake in Photronics by 5.6% in the third quarter. Meros Investment Management LP now owns 476,395 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $11,796,000 after buying an additional 25,471 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Photronics by 5.1% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,745,165 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $43,217,000 after buying an additional 85,160 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.38% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PLAB has been the subject of several analyst reports. DA Davidson upped their price target on shares of Photronics from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. StockNews.com upgraded Photronics from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, September 28th.

About Photronics

Photronics, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture and sale of photomask products and services in the United States, Taiwan, China, Korea, Europe, and internationally. It offers photomasks that are used in the manufacture of integrated circuits and flat panel displays (FPDs); and to transfer circuit patterns onto semiconductor wafers, and FDP substrates.